


Seventeen

by ineffablebureaucracy



Series: Can't We Be Seventeen? [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: NOT zucest, Sibling Bonding, fire siblings, fire siblings get to be happy and healthy for once, i'm in my feels about these two and if i have to be you do too, redeemed!Azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27366547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineffablebureaucracy/pseuds/ineffablebureaucracy
Summary: Three years after the end of the war, Zuko's council wants Azula moved to the Tower now that her mind has healed, but when he goes to break the news to her, she asks him to make a different choice.Or, someone chooses Azula for the first time, and lets her be seventeen.
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Can't We Be Seventeen? [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1998940
Comments: 6
Kudos: 111





	Seventeen

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by "Seventeen" from Heathers

**Seventeen**

“Yes, I get it!”

Zuko was stunned at the desperate way his sister had snapped. It had been three years since he’d ordered that she would be put in a mental institution instead of prison, and now she had healed. Well, she’d healed enough that her mind was no longer shattered. She had become herself again. But he had still noticed a change in her. She was herself, yes, but she was… was it kinder? He didn’t think that quite described her. But she wasn’t so _harsh_ , so _calculating_ any longer. More tolerant, too, if he had to name something. He had decided to try and see her as often as possible, figure out how far she had come since her admittance, and truth was… He had seen a lot of positive change.

But his council didn’t believe him. They still believed she was mad, and if she wasn’t, if she had- by some miracle- regained her sanity, they didn’t believe for a moment that she could be anything near _good_. As such, they had put pressure on Zuko, far too much pressure, to move her from the institution to the Tower, if he wanted her moved so badly. Ambassadors from other nations were putting that same pressure on him, saying they would consider pulling out if he simply _released_ her. In the end, after hours and days and weeks spent arguing for and fighting for his sister, he had been overwhelmed. Even his uncle had taken a stance against her.

It hadn’t felt right to the young Fire Lord to send her to the Tower without explaining it. So, he’d gone into his sister’s room in the institution, more anxious than he’d been even the first time he went to see her. Oh, it hurt to remember how she’d been when she was first admitted, to see the progress she had made since then, and to know what he was about to condemn her to. It felt so wrong. What kind of brother was he?

The explanation hadn’t gone well at all. Understandably, Azula had felt betrayed, and devastated, and he could see all of it in her. There was another change, he had realized- Azula was _open_. She didn’t hide herself anymore, nor did she hide how she felt about things. But he could almost see her trying to close up the moment she realized what he was saying. The first tears had escaped, they couldn’t be stopped, but then she started trying to force herself to calm down, to take this in her stride as she tried to take everything, before. Zuko had taken the approach of explaining to her _why_ his council and the ambassadors had pressured him. That was when she’d finally had her outburst, and the walls she was trying to construct shattered.

"Yes, I get it!"

His heart had shattered when she said that, too. Not just at her words, but the way her eyes had watered, the way her lower lip had started to quiver. “I’m messed up!” she continued. “I’m damaged, no one wants me around because they’re _afraid_ of me. They think I’m a monster.” She shook her head and wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m not a monster. I’m- Didn’t I get better, Zuko? Wasn’t that why I was in here? Wasn’t I supposed to be let _go_ at the end of all this?” Her tone was so desperate, it made his chest ache. What was he doing to her?

“You did,” he admitted. “I’m sorry, Azula. I- My hands are tied in this. I’m gonna lose all the support from the other nations. They don’t understand, they haven’t been seeing you. They think you’ve tricked me. I wanna let you out of here, I wanna just let you go. But I can’t. I’m sorry.”

The next words out of her mouth made him feel sick, and worse than he’d felt yet. “I just wanted to go see a bad play again,” she mumbled. “I wanted to pick something to eat from a menu. I wanted to go shopping. I wanted…” Her voice cracked. “I wanted to be seventeen.”

Zuko blinked and realized his cheeks were wet. “‘Zula…” he said softly. He stepped forward, and reached out to her, but she stepped back, stepped away from him. Everything he’d worked so hard for with her, everything she’d worked so hard for with him… He was watching it fall apart in front of his eyes.

Their mother. Him. Mai. Ty Lee. Their father. And… him again. And she was closing up again. “No, it’s… I understand. People are going to do that. And I’ve done a lot to deserve that. I need to learn to let it go.” He could tell she was trying so hard to stay calm that the opposite effect was being had, and he grimaced.

“Azula,” he called. “Take a deep breath.” The Fire Lord walked the rest of the way to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m… I can’t just send you there.” His sister looked honestly surprised when she looked up at him. “I’m gonna take you out to Ember Island.” The surprise turned into confusion then, and he smiled. “We’ll go see the bad plays, go get whatever you want to eat. Go sit on the beach with a fire, like we used to.”

Azula smiled at him a little, then. “You’re not going to abandon me again, then?” she asked, her voice so soft it almost sounded like it cracked.

“No way,” he promised. “I’ll figure something out. But for now…” He dropped his hand and started back toward the door of her cell. “Come be seventeen.”

She still seemed like she couldn’t believe this. Not once in her life had she ever been chosen over… well, anything. Her mother chose Zuko over her consistently, Zuko chose the Avatar, Mai chose Zuko, Ty Lee chose Mai, and her father chose power. It didn’t feel real. “Are you… are you choosing me?” she questioned.

Zuko smiled at her and nodded. “Yeah, I am,” he confirmed. “I’m choosing you, Azula. C’mon. You’re my sister. I’m not gonna hurt you for their sake. You don’t deserve that.”

He was shocked when she suddenly crossed the cell and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. It was instinct when he wrapped his back around her, but he smiled, holding her close. “I’m really going to get to be seventeen?” she mumbled, and when she looked up at him, he couldn’t help but grin. She seemed younger than she had, even back during the war. It was like the stresses had left her, and the horrors. Well… it was like she was healing.

"You are,” he told her. “I’m gonna have a seriously pissed council, but I’ll figure out something to tell them to get them off my back.” Zuko chuckled a little. “Maybe I’ll just tell them what happened. I’m picking you this time. I’ll tell them you’re my sister, and you matter more.”

"Do I?” she asked.

“Of course you do. Now c’mon, Ember Island’s not going anywhere, but we’re not getting any younger, and if we don’t watch out, you’re gonna be eighteen before we get you out there.” He tapped the tip of her nose affectionately, and she chuckled softly, before stepping back. Zuko smiled at her, and then stepped aside, so she could walk out of her cell. When she did, it seemed like he could see a load come off her shoulders. When she turned around, she had the most _real_ smile he’d ever seen on her.

“Aren’t you coming, Zuzu?” she prompted.

For once, he didn’t hate that name.


End file.
